Not enough is said about people who saw it before it came. Relying on someone to do the right thing in the middle of chaos is unreliable. You really don't need to cherry pick to find examples on both sides.
George W Bush laid out a major pandemic strategy, for instance: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/homeland/pandemi...
Too bad it fell apart in subsequent administrations.
Yes - it seems like Tucker Carlson was the person who convinced Trump to change his mind[1] and he deserves credit for it.
I wonder what it was that convinced him when many of the people he deals with day-to-day were of the complete opposite view?
[1] https://www.thedailybeast.com/tucker-carlsons-monologue-prom...
As much as I disagree with almost everything Carlson says, I have to give him credit for going against the grain on this and a few other issues in the past. Lindsey Graham also deserves some credit for calling up Trump and trying to convince him to take this situation more seriously. There's something to be said for the strategy of kowtowing to Trump most of the time so that he will still listen to you when it really counts. That strategy shouldn't be necessary with a competent leader, but here we are.
At least that's been my observation, but I don't watch TV news; I just read about what's on it. I've been getting my news from WaPo and WSJ, both of which took the virus seriously from the beginning.